Do Google+1’s Play a Role in Higher Ranking?

In a recent statement, Google’s head of the webspam team, Matt Cutts has categorically discussed that Google+1s do not play a role in Google search. However, according to a recent study took up by Moz.com, the story seems a little different. The study apparently said that the +1 factor might not play a role a ranking, however it comes with many SEO edges. The study also further clarifies that by increasing your Google+ engagement, you will be in a position to reap SEO advantages for your website.

The SEO Power of a Google +1 Button:

When somebody +1s your website, or web page, their could be a probability that your website can show up to them and their circles higher in Google search results if they’re logged in. Now the question is, will this facilitate SEO? The basic behind Google searches is still the same – fetching data or information about any given topic. Whenever a target audience visits your page and gives your site a +1, it starts showing higher in the personalized results. So, the benefit is visible already! Isn’t it?

Further, this also lead you to a probability where they may link your website or a webpage while writing their articles or blogs. And on the other way around, if they are linking your site to their articles, they take you as an authentic source for information and they do not feel bad about giving you a credit for it. This results into building an automated trust against your website and a dedicated customer base for that matter.

Google+ & its Semantic Relevance:

Every post on Google+ is having a semantic relevance, a set of characteristics of a full-blown blog; few of them are:

Every post has its own URL.

The title tag carries the first 45-50 characters.

Google+ posts can be lengthy, thus carry a better chance to be more informative. It has been observed that there is a strong relationship between longer pages and higher rankings.

A re-shared post on Google+ can accumulate internal links from the platform.

Google +1- ing

If you have got an extremely participating Google+ network, you’ll be able to utilize it to induce a lot of +1s. Having a large amount of followers isn’t the foremost vital issue. If you have got 1,000,000 followers who don’t seem to be participating in “plus one-ing” or sharing your content on Google+, it’ll not assist you anyway. If somebody +1s your Google+ posts that contain a link to your page, that page also conjointly receives a +1. If a person on Google Plus has the plus one tab enabled, you also receive a do-follow link back to your site.

Using Images on Google+:

To tap further benefits from G+1’s, it’s advisory to use images, graphs, infographics etc. People are more likely to click on the +1 button available on an embedded image, than on a link. The trick is to put a link in the image description. Whenever someone +1s your image, the +1 also goes to link by default. This will help you to to improve your probabilities of obtaining +1s by building your Google+ network around your target audience. Providers of strategical SEO services have evidently being found to reap benefits out of this practice.

Finally…

Over the past few years since it’s inception, it has been very prominent to us that Google+ is not a mere online social platform. It is rather a place to find a target group who can relate to your content and a platform for you as well to acquire knowledge from others’ content. So, it’s still the same mantra – stick to the basics – “Public” your posts and take advantage of rel=”publisher” by connecting your website to your Google+ brand page.